Woods two back despite putter problems

Woods two back despite putter problems

NORTON, Mass. – Four-plus hours of hard work at TPC Boston left Tiger Woods just where he started – that is, two shots off the lead and in the thick of things headed to the weekend at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

A disappointing par at the reachable par-5 18th hole left Woods at 3-under 68, and it was one of those days he felt could have been much, much better. As good as he putted one day earlier in an opening 64, Woods had trouble converting several good looks for birdie on Saturday, and spent much of the day just spinning his wheels.

“You’ve got to let it balance itself out, because I made everything yesterday,” Woods said. “Today was one of those days where I had some good looks, missed them, but didn’t feel like I was rolling it correctly.”

Woods finished with 30 putts, three of them coming on the 11th green, as he made bogey to slip to 8 under for the tournament. Playing in the afternoon, Woods finally made an adjustment in his setup on the 14th green, where he promptly poured in a 30-footer for birdie. He added a 15-footer for birdie at 17 to get to 10 under, two shots behind Rory McIlroy.

He surrendered a chance to draw one shot closer at the par-5 18th when he laid up and then hit a poor third shot, coming up short. He tried to use a slope to the left of the hole location by cutting a soft sand wedge in, but his ball shot up too high and was knocked down by the wind.

Overall, tee to green, Woods said he was pleased with his game, saying the toughest thing to figure out on Saturday was the swirling breeze.

“It was really hard to pull a club out there,” Woods said. “The wind was dancing all over the place. I know when I’m playing well, I don’t usually struggle with pin high, but it was hard to get the ball pin high.”

Woods has played in seven of the previous nine DBCs, winning in 2006 and twice finishing runner-up (2004 and 2007).